A selfless life recalled

California neurosurgeon tells of slain Delmar optometrist's kindness

By PAUL GRONDAHL Staff writer

Published 11:19 pm, Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Photo: International Assistance Mission

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In this undated image made available by International Assistance Mission, Tom Little, of Delmar, N.Y., an optometrist and team leader for IAM, one of 10 civilian volunteers killed in Afghanistan on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010, is shown. The Christian charity IAM said Monday, Aug. 9, 2010 that it had no plans to leave Afghanistan despite the murders of 10 members of its medical aid team and repeated that the organization does not attempt to convert Muslims to Christianity. The 10 team members _ six Americans, two Afghans, one Briton and a German _ were gunned down Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010 after they were accosted by gunmen after finishing a two-week mission providing medical care to impoverished villagers in remote Nuristan province. (AP Photo/International Assistance Mission) NO SALES less

In this undated image made available by International Assistance Mission, Tom Little, of Delmar, N.Y., an optometrist and team leader for IAM, one of 10 civilian volunteers killed in Afghanistan on Thursday, ... more

Photo: International Assistance Mission

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Dr. Aria Sabit is a neurosurgeon in Ventura, Calif. who was helped by Tom Little, the Delmar optometrist killed in Afghanistan. Sabit and his family were in a refugee camp in Pakistan and Little and his church sponsored them to come to Albany in 1984. (Photo courtesy Dr. Aria Sabit) less

Dr. Aria Sabit is a neurosurgeon in Ventura, Calif. who was helped by Tom Little, the Delmar optometrist killed in Afghanistan. Sabit and his family were in a refugee camp in Pakistan and Little and his church ... more

A selfless life recalled

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BETHLEHEM -- Life changes in an instant, and the improbable connection a quarter-century ago between an Afghan refugee boy, Aria Sabit, and Tom Little, the Delmar optometrist murdered last week in a suspected Taliban ambush in Afghanistan, underscored that fragility.

If it weren't for the kindness of Little and his wife, Libby, and a sponsorship from First Presbyterian Church in Schenectady in 1984, Sabit and his family might still be packed 10 to a room and languishing in the mud hut of a refugee camp in Pakistan after fleeing the Soviet invasion of their homeland.

Today, Sabit is a successful and newly wealthy 35-year-old neurosurgeon living in Ventura, Calif., with an office overlooking the Pacific Ocean and an abiding appreciation for the humanitarianism and selflessness of Tom Little and the 30 years he devoted to running a free eye clinic for the poor in Afghanistan.

"I ended up being a neurosurgeon for a reason, and Tom Little was a big part of it," Sabit recalled in a phone interview Wednesday. "I'll never forget coming from a country at war and then meeting Tom. He was a very gentle soul. Without him and his church, I wouldn't be where I am."

It was snowing in late March 1984 when Little arrived in his small station wagon to pick up the six-member Sabit family at the Albany airport. Aria was 10 and the oldest of the four kids.

"Here was this tall man with glasses and he bent down, shook my hand, rubbed my head and said, 'Welcome to America,' " Sabit recalled.

When Sabit read the news about Little's murder along with nine other members of a Christian-sponsored medical team, Sabit and his family members reminisced about Little's goodness. They tried to reach out to his wife to offer their condolences and assistance, but didn't connect.

Sabit's mother is a homemaker living in Montreal, where his sister recently completed a master's degree in women's studies at McGill University. One of his brothers is completing a medical residency in radiation oncology. His other brother is specializing in neurosurgery in medical school. Their father, Abdul Jabbar Sabit, a former attorney general of Afghanistan, lives in Kabul.

The Sabit family lived in upper-middle class comfort in Kabul before the Soviets invaded. Aria was 8 when the family fled the fighting in 1982. They began a dangerous 200-mile trek through the mountains and into Pakistan. They hid in caves to avoid Soviet helicopter gunships firing upon them.

Sabit remembered the refugee camp in Peshawar as crowded, squalid and depressing. Tom Little's random act of kindness took them away from that. "I was talking to my mom the other day and we were saying we'd never met people as kind as Tom and Libby before," Sabit said.

The Littles helped the refugees settle into an apartment in Albany, and brought them groceries, cooking supplies and warm clothes since they'd come directly from a tropical climate. The church paid the rent. When Sabit's mother became concerned about some other tenants in the apartment, the Littles offered to have the Sabits share their Delmar home.

"They insisted we move into their house with them, but there were six of us and we didn't want to put that burden on them," Sabit recalled. The Sabits stayed in the Albany apartment for about six weeks and relocated to Washington, D.C., where his dad landed a job.

Sabit, who is Muslim, never felt any religious friction from Little, who was Christian and whose work in Afghanistan was supported by a nonprofit Christian organization, the International Assistance Mission. The group insists it does not proselytize in Afghanistan.

"Tom never proselytized from what I remember," Sabit said. "He never asked us to go to his church or to participate in any religious activities. Nobody at any point tried to sway us from our religion. He was a man who believed in God and believed in his duty to help others. Those are the kind of people Afghanistan needs."